Introduction of CAD/CAM technology through adoption of modern designs and colour combinations and advantages of this cutting edge technology in the field of textile designing and manufacturing have been revolutionising the textile industry. Adoption of this new technology facilitates easy creation of virtually any kind of weave and design, helps simulate the created weave/design into the virtual fabric in different colour combinations even before the actual fabric is produced and if satisfied, provides us the required parameters in various formats as per our requirement to weave the created design into the actual fabric form. It has virtually unlimited features that can never be imagined by manual designing. In this new millennium, the age of IT & Computer Science, this state-of-the-art technology is being adopted by almost every powerloom industry. Handloom sectors are also taking the help of this unique designing technology, though quite few in numbers till date. To compete in the global market, it has now become a must to adopt such type of latest tools for not only powerloom sector but the handloom sector as well in order to increase productivity and also to achieve value addition of the produce to meet the rapid changing mood of the consumers for fashionable designs both nationally as also internationally. This virtually 'No Limit' solution for textile designing and manufacturing has a very vast application areas from dobby, jacquard and screen printing industries to blanket, carpet, knitting industries and so on. The present article has been focused only on the key features, flexibilities and other unique features and merits of the CAD/CAM module for dobby industry (both powerloom and handloom)

Last decade, textile industry has witnessed not only a tremendous modernisation in technology but also adoption of IT and Computer Science on massive scale. To unleash the creativity of the textile designers, Computer Aided Textile Designing is being adopted more and more in both the handloom and powerloom industries not only to enhance productivity but also to enhance designing possibility thereby reducing monotony.


Introduction of Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing Technology through adoption of modern designs and colour combinations is making the textile fabrics more attractive and competitive to meet the rapid changing mood of the consumers for fashionable designs both nationally as also internationally.

Aim and objective

The basic aim and objective of this article is to develop awareness about a new technology that has been revolutionising the textile industry and the textile designing, in particular. In today's competitive world, the CAD/CAM technology for textile designing and manufacturing has to be adopted not only by powerloom sector but the handloom sector as well in order to increase productivity as well as to overcome monotony in designs thereby facing the designing challenges imposed by other countries. In handloom industry/sector, this in turn, will result in value addition of the produce thereby leading to overall enhancement of income and social empowerment of the handloom weavers' community, and will enable them to withstand competition effectively in India and abroad.

Observation

In case of powerloom sector of our country, almost every composite textile mill has adopted the CAD/CAM technology for textile designing and manufacturing in their Research and Development (R&D) Lab. But whenever we talk about handloom sector nationally, the picture is very much savvy. Though quite a few handloom sectors in South Indian region (belonging to the states like Kerala,

Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra) have realised the importance of these new techniques and adopted this on co-operative basis, but the real picture in West Bengal. is very much disheartening in this regard. So far as the official information is available, only one venture/project from Government level has been launched so far in the district of Nadia. This project has been running since 28/11/2000 on cooperative basis and through participatory manner. The weavers and designers of Ranaghat, Shantipur, Nabadweep and some other adjacent areas are getting benefited out of this project1.

Discussion

In order to realise, to some extent, the importance/ essentiality of this emerging technology and also to get some flavour of this state-of-the-art textile designing & manufacturing techniques, it becomes imperative to get in touch, with at least, the key features, flexibilities, scopes and some other unique merits of this latest technology, that can never be imagined in case of manual designing.

This CAD/CAM software with its plethora of tools and utilities unleashes the creativity of our designers. The software will produce all the required outputs to allow the craftsman to weave the exquisite pieces.

Amongst the various CAD/CAM Software commercially available today, following are excellent in all respects:
.CadVantage Win2: Developed by Teckmen Systems, J - 18, S - Block, MIDC, Bhosari, Pune - 411026. E-mail: teckmen@vsnl.com
.AutoTex3: Developed by PLC Consulting, Company, 61, Gokhale Market, Delhi - 54. E-mail: plcdelhi@vsnl.com
.TEX-Style/Jac-Art4: Developed by M/ s Wonder Weaves Systems, 34, Bindal Industrial Estate, Kurla Andheri Road, Saki Naka, Mumbai 400 072.
.JAY-CADTEXs: Developed by Jay Instruments & Systems Pvt Ltd, E-16, Everest, Tardeo Road, Mumbai 400034.
.PCTEX6: Developed by Mysore Informatics & Computer Software Ltd, 1672, H-Block, 15th Main Road, Annanagar, Chennai 600 040.

All these CAD/CAM solutions consist of several common modules like:
.Edit module: This is the mother of all modules. Edit module is used for creating new images or editing scanned images. This module is like the foundation for all other modules. One can load any image (scanned/edited - in BMP format) for editing.

Edit is one of the modules which can cater to the needs of jacquard, furnishing, carpets, durries, plastic mats, sarees, labels, towels, dress materials, knitwear, lace, printing and many more industries.

Edit module combines an excellent collection of painting tools, and powerful retouching capabilities - all-in one easy to use Windows application. The combinations are endless and certainly device independence allows true colour editing of up to 16.7 million (256 x 256 x 256) colours.

Dobby Module: CAD/CAM module dedicated for dobby industry
Jacquard Module: CAD/CAM module for jacquard industry.
Print Module: CAD/CAM module useful for screen printing industry.
Weave Library
Colour library
Yarn Library
Checks & Stripes module - Optional component to produce virtually unlimited varieties of Check & Stripe effects in the fabrics either in plain weave or in any other weave.

Application areas

This CAD/CAM solution has a very wide application area, e.g. bed covers, towels, plastic mats, carpets, dress materials, sarees, laces, table mats, labels, knitwears, suiting & shirting, printing fabrics, furnishing, upholstery, blankets, and so on.

Industries supported

The industries supported are blanket, mats, carpet, dobby, sarees, shawls, towels, knitwear, lace, furnishing, dress material, woven labels, screen printing and many more.

All the modules mentioned above are not used in every industry. The packages are industry specific - these packages are a combination of modules, relevant to the industry needs.

Integration of modules

All the modules are linked to other relevant modules. So we can easily switch between modules while working with the software. The application launch bar lets us go from one module to another.

We may not have all the modules shown here. It depends upon the package we have purchased. For example if we purchase a carpet related package then dobby module will not be there and so on.

System requirements

The following are the minimum requirements for optimum performance of this type of software:

Hardware

IBM compatible INTEL Pentium III I 750 MHz or higher
256 MB RAM or higher
20 GB HDD (SCSI preferable) or higher
1.44 MB FDD
CD Drive
LAN Card
AGP Card 32 MB (SiS 6326 or equivalent) [24 bit colour support]
17" or 21" colour monitor (1240 X 1024 X 24 bit or 32 colour support) . Keyboard
Mouse

Operating system

.MS Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2/XP Professional

Peripherals

Flatbed Scanner
Cordless Digitizer (preferably 12" x 12")
Inkjet Colour Printer
Laser Printer
Plotter (24" I 36" 142")
ZIP drive or CD write (For backup purpose)
UPS (1 KVA).

All the peripherals must be compatible with MS Windows environment. The hardware requirement may vary with the particular brand of package to be installed. So, we have to confirm the hardware and operating system compatibility with the particular vendor of the supplied packages.

User Interface of the CADI CAM Modules

All the modules of this type of CAD/CAM software possess the unique customisation facility. Customisation facilitates redesigning the Graphic User Interface [GUI] according to our needs:
Keyboard customisation
Toolbar customisation
Desktop customisation
Palette customisation
Different views facility
Design view
Graph view
Thumbnail view
Repeat view
Multiple design view.

CAD/CAM module for dobby industry

CAD/CAM technology has also been implemented to the ancient art of weaving. Dobby module is dedicated for dobby industry (both powerloom and handloom). Though this module is meant for dobby industry, it can equally well be used in case of ordinary loom (e.g. tappet loom for powerloom industry and ordinary paddle operated loom for handloom sector). With the help of these latest tools, the tedious job of the weavers has been turned into a simpler form.

We can create any kind of dobby design and get the accurate peg plan from the software. Along with this, we can also simulate the resultant fabric with the help of dobby module.

There are two ways of using dobby module. One is where we create the design and the software will generate the draft/lift (peg plan) for us. In the other method, we define the draft/lift and the software will generate the design for us.

When we install dobby software, the following modules gets installed in the computer:

.Dobby
.Weave library
.Yarn library

Dobby Terms Demystified

Elements of dobby

The following are the interface elements and special features of this module:
Interface introduction
Keyboard customisation
Different views
.Desktop customisation
.Palette customisation.

Interface introduction

The interface of this software is very powerful and intuitive. The typical interface of a dobby module contains:
Menu bar
Toolbars
Ribbon Bar
Status Bar

Common features of dobby module of all the CAD/CAM software

.Weave creation: Easy creation of any kind of weave
- There are two different ways of design/weave creation. One is to create the design and generate peg plan out of that. The other is to define the peg plan and get the design from the defined peg plan. Again, if we consider the first process that is design to peg plan process, there are two ways. One is, we have a blank graph paper and create the design on it. Another is, we scan a design, do editing job and convert it to a dobby design.
- Automatic generation of Draft and Peg plan from a given weave.
- Automatic generation of Weave from any given Peg plan and Draft.
- No limitation of the size of Design Repeat or the number of Heald Shafts to be used to produce the Design.
- Keeping the Draft constant and by changing the Peg plan only, we can create a wide number of different kinds of designs effortlessly.

- Thus, we can create designs without changing the drafting order repeatedly.
Fancy yarn support
Yarn layout specification
Fabric Simulation
- This feature allows to see the virtual fabric of the created design even before the production of actual fabric. We can simulate both front and back of the design. We can vary ends/inch, picks/inch or colour of yarns, and see the simulation with different parameters easily.

.Random Colourways
- This option is associated with the colour combination creation feature of Dobby module.
This option is used to set parameters for viewing colour combination of any simulated image. Random colour combination dialog box is displayed on selecting this option. Various settings can be done with the help of this dialog box.

.Simulation Colourways
- Colour Library allows to create own palette of colours. Custom colour palettes can be used to view different simulated colour combinations of the created design either in Manual Mode or in Auto Mode. Automatic Colourways Feature enables us to create one colour combination of the created weave/design per second. Depending upon our specification (colour library or default palette), it will pick colour from the respective option and replace it in the view. Simultaneous change will be reflected in the simulated image. This mode changes the colour combinations one by one at a certain interval. This time interval can be defined using the Random Colourways option under Options menu. Pause and resume buttons become active on selecting this option. Dobby module will go on creating all possible colour combinations from the given source. In case we want to save a combination, we can do not by using the pause and save random combination tool.
.Production Report Printout
- Two types of printouts can be generated Peg Plan Report and Graph Printouts.
Peg Plan Setting dialog box offers two modes of printing. The best mode for our computer is selected by default. So, we do not have to change the mode. We will change the mode to the alternate mode only if we are not getting the printout. The drop box motion check box allows us to print the drop box motion information along with the peg plan.

Different views

There are mainly two different views in Dobby module. One is main view, Le. the view which gets displayed when we invoke the Dobby module. Another is the Collection view which is displayed on creating a new collection file or loading an existing collection file. Again in the collection view there are different views available as follows:
Draft View: This area shows the draft of the design we have created. If we create a design and click on Refresh Draft/Lift tool, this view will be updated accordingly. In case we are creating the draft/lift then the draft creation job is done in this area.
Lift View: This is similar to the Draft view but this one is used for defining the lifting order for the design or to see the lifting order from the created design in design view.
Design View: This area is used for design creation. As per our requirement of hooks and picks, graph paper will be displayed in this area. We have to select the pen tool and create design here. In case we are doing the other way, Le. we create the draft and lift then this area will show the resultant design on selecting the Refresh Weave tool.
Simulation View: This view is displayed only if we simulate the created design (weave). Print related options under File menu will become active when Simulation view is active (we can click on the title bar of Simulation view to make it active).
Simulation Setup View: This area stores information related to the simulation setup. When we create a new simulation setting and save the same, a new node will be added in this view with the given name.

Conclusion

To unleash the creativity of the textile designers, CAD/CAM technology is a must in today's context, not only to increase productivity but also to meet the rapid changing mood of the customers for fashionable designs. This type of virtually 'No Limit' Software for textile designing & manufacturing has been revolutionising the textile industry (both Powerloom and Handloom) to overcome the designing challenges faced in today's competitive world. This 'Ultimate Solution' for textile designing and manufacturing has very vast application areas from dobby, jacquard and screen printing industries to blanket and carpet industries and so on. With the help of its powerful Edit and Dobby Module we can create virtually unlimited varieties of designs and colour combinations that can never be imagined by manual designing. Apart from this, these two modules provide us the required feeding calculations and parameters necessary for converting the created design into the actual fabric form.

References

1 www.angeifire.com/electronic/ hand loom project/Project_Name.html
2 Manual of CadVantageWin, Developed by Teckmen Systems
3 Manual of Auto Tex, Developed by PLC Consulting Co
4 Manual of TEX-Style/Jac-Art, Developed by M/s Wonder Weaves Systems
5 Manual of JAY-CADTEX, Developed by Jay Instruments and Systems Pvt Ltd
6 Manual of PCTEX, Developed by Mysore Informatics and Computer Software Ltd.

Source: Asian Textile Journal